Method of interpreting proverbs. Methods for the study of psychopathology

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

The proverbs reflect the experience of the people in which the personality grows and develops. Sayings and proverbs are a figurative phrase, they carry a certain, quite obvious meaning, but in a figurative sense. This is a kind of formula that transmits wisdom to the new generation from the previous ones.

The method of interpreting proverbs and metaphors in modern psychology is very widely used; it helps to see the problems that teenagers have in their team and to recognize thinking problems in the early stages.

Methodology

Methodology is the science of how to teach or explore patterns. Each psychologist tries to develop his own methodology.

In our case, we are talking about a method of interpreting proverbs, which allows you to understand how effective and streamlined the thought processes of a teenager or adult are.

Whatis a proverb? Folklore and psychology of communication

Proverbs have been formed in the linguistic environment since antiquity under the influence of cultural and socio-political ties. These are figurative expressions, which, in principle, have a well-known interpretation. For example, "The hand washes the hand," or "God saves the safe." But the figurativeness of proverbs differs in specificity. The proverb is short. In fact, this is a small expression that carries a broad meaning.

But when studying the character and thinking of an individual, proverbs can be used as material for "fishing out" from the subconscious of those mental images that a person hides from the public. If you ask several people to give a broader interpretation of the same saying, then the answers will be different. This is due to the fact that people have different thought patterns and value systems.

The method of interpreting proverbs has long been used in practical psychology, but it is also used in pathopsychology.

Method B. Zeigarnik

Soviet pathopsychologist Bluma Zeigarnik created her own method of working with proverbs. The researcher must choose from the list of proposed proverbs the definition corresponding to each saying, the list of which is also already set.

This method determines the pathological features of thinking inherent in people prone to schizoid disorder and schizophrenia.

The technique allows you to set the following properties of thinking: unproductive, unfocused,scattered thoughts, slipping. All these properties of thinking are present simultaneously in schizophrenia.

Interpretation of metaphors and proverbs as a method of analyzing mental deviations. Rubinstein test

To interpret possible deviations in the psyche, the test of the pathopsychological technique of S. Ya. Rubinstein.

The factors taken into account in the analysis are:

• a person's ability to clearly express thoughts in words;
• detail with which a person interprets the picture formed in his brain;
• the ability to control one's thoughts, that is, to keep the mind within the framework of the task and not "jump" from concept to concept;
• speed of proverb analysis.

For example, a proverb is given:

Play but don't flirt

What does the personality think about this? Does the person put his obsessive neurotic thoughts into interpretation? Says: "It's about me, I have problems"? Or does he give sound and reasoned arguments, does not dwell on selfish thoughts?

The same is the case with the analysis of metaphors. For example, the metaphor "deep night". A person with deep and creative thinking will be able to create a whole story based on this phrase, come up with many details for the main image. A logical person with purely technical thinking will put it briefly: "That's when it's dark."

Too detailed description, getting stuck on one mental image and ignoring others is not goodsign. Being stuck is also indicative of some underlying mental disturbance.

Working with teenagers. Analyzing their thinking

Teenagers can't always speak up in front of adults. And this is important to them.

The heroine of Miguel de Unamuno said the following phrase:

It is better to live an hour and talk than to live two hours and be silent.

They must speak out all the accumulated feelings in themselves, so as not to "explode". When they have problems and the reasons become incomprehensible, a psychologist or parent can offer them to interpret a proverb and give an explanation through the image of their own behavior.

The method of interpreting proverbs for a teenager is an opportunity to "get to the bottom" of his personal problems. Since, having felt that he is being listened to, he can "slightly open the door" inside himself so that he can be helped.

Many proverbs make a person think. By asking to analyze a philosophical proverb, you can see how developed the intellectual abilities of a teenager are.

The hut is not red with corners, but red with pies.

What does the young man understand by "pies" - material values or moral? Why should a person care more about the inside than the outside?

Play on words. Metaphors and images

Many metaphors are given by psychologists to their patients, but it is much better when the patient himself gives the metaphor that comes to his mind. This language of images will reveal to the psychologist a huge layer of the patient's internal problems.

PsychologistIranian origin Nosstrat Pezeshkian said that the image of a metaphor is able to "say" much more than a couple of words that make up a metaphor. Therefore, the method of interpreting proverbs, interpreting metaphors is an excellent way to quickly get to the heart of the problem, without wandering in the tangled corridors of the patient's thoughts, his painful rationalizations.